Sonoma County - The Wandering Palate

Must-Have Wines of the Lunar Year USA – White Wine of the Year

Peter Michael La Carrière Chardonnay 2008 – Knights Valley, Sonoma County, California

At the risk of being repetitive, whenever I’m asked what is my favourite wine? The answer is invariably, “The one I haven’t tried yet” and discovery remains my main motivation in my enthusiasm for wine. Moreover, the adage ‘The more you know about wine, the more you realise how little you know’ is pertinent with my lack of knowledge on American wine. Read More >

Must Have Wines, Wine Feng Shui | Related to: California, Chardonnay, Peter Michael, Sonoma County, United States of America | 1 comment

From a lost play by Eubulos, (c.405 BC - c.335 BC)
‘For sensible men I prepare only three kraters (large vase used to mix wine): one for health (which they drink first), the second for love and pleasure, and the third for sleep. After the third one is drained, wise men go home.

The fourth krater is not mine any more - it belongs to bad behaviour; the fifth is for shouting; the sixth is for rudeness and insults; the seventh is for fights; the eighth is for breaking the furniture; the ninth is for depression; the tenth is for madness and unconsciousness.’

"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read.

But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defence of the new.”

As uttered by the vitriolic restaurant critic Anton Ego, in the film “Ratatouille”, after his epiphany.